Investigation of mechanical properties and stress corrosion behavior of welded 316L stainless steels

316L stainless steels are frequently used in industry because of their features such as not only corrosion resistance, but also easy shaping, high strength resistance, and working at different temperatures. Besides, the most desired feature of the manufacturing industry is weldability. 316L austenitic stainless steels find a wide place in the industry due to their good weldability. The biggest handicap in these materials is that the Cr element, which gives them their stainless feature, forms CrC precipitates at the grain boundaries during welding. When stress is applied to the weld area, it is seen that the material is separated from the grain boundaries and causes stress corrosion cracking. In this study, the stress corrosion behavior of 316L stainless steels was investigated and it was aimed to shed light on the industry at this point. 316L stainless steel sheets are joined by TIG and Laser welding methods. The fiber is cut by laser method. Microstructure, hardness, tensile and three-point bending tests were performed on the assembled specimens. The obtained results were compared with both TIG welded specimens and laser welded specimens. The second stage of the study is the investigation of stress corrosion behavior. Stress corrosion behavior was applied to TIG and laser welded specimens. Some of the samples, which were subjected to bending tensile treatment, were kept at 600°C for 4 hours and the sensitization process was applied. Afterwards, all samples were kept in 10% HCl solution for 48-336 hours, respectively, and it was examined whether stress corrosion cracking occurred in the samples. Keywords: AISI 316L Stainless Steel, TIG welding, Laser welding, Sensitization, Corrosion, Stress corrosion cracking